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'Decline to sign' campaign launched to fight bid for new Boulder municipalization vote

By Erica Meltzer, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
05/24/2013 12:42:19 PM MDT

Updated:
05/24/2013 09:54:18 PM MDT

A group calling itself Empower Boulder plans to send this letter to as many as 10,000 Boulder households next week. (Empower Boulder )

A group of pro-municipalization activists are launching a "decline to sign" campaign to encourage Boulder residents not to sign a petition to place a proposed charter amendment on the November ballot.

The charter amendment would require a vote on debt limits and repayment costs before the city could issue bonds for a municipal electric utility. It also would prevent a future municipal utility from extending outside city limits unless affected county residents are allowed to vote in that election.

Advocates of a city-run utility say the charter amendment would have the effect of killing municipalization because it would make it difficult for the city to begin condemnation proceedings against Xcel Energy's distribution system in Boulder or keep up with ongoing infrastructure needs.

They also fear that every additional election gives Xcel Energy the opportunity to spend more money to defeat municipalization at the ballot box. The close 2011 election in which Boulder voters authorized the City Council to issue bonds to start an electric utility was fiercely contested.

Representatives of New Era Colorado will have a booth at the Boulder Creek Festival this weekend where they will be urging voters not to sign the petition to place the amendment on the ballot.

"We're using this as an opportunity to educate people about the reality of the Xcel initiative," New Era Colorado Executive Director Steve Fenberg said. "The fundamental truth is that it is misleading, and we think people deserve to know the real facts."

Phil Fox, a spokesman for Voter Approval of Debt Limits, the group pushing the charter amendment, said the proposal's goal is to give voters control over municipalization.

"Our measure does nothing more than ensure the people who have to pay the debt have a say in the debt," he said in an email. "It's pretty heavy handed for this group to try to deny the people the opportunity to vote on the measure."

His group needs a little less than 5,000 signatures to place the charter amendment on the ballot. Fox previously said his group would use volunteer petition circulators until it raised more money to hire people to work on the effort. On Friday, he said the group would use paid circulators "while we're getting our volunteer effort organized." He said it had taken longer than expected to organize volunteers.

A newly formed coalition calling itself Empower Boulder plans to send a letter to as many as 10,000 Boulder households next week urging them not to sign the petition to place the charter amendment on the ballot. Former Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne is the group's president, and former City Council member Crystal Gray is also part of that effort.

"People say, 'Why not have another election? It's no big deal,'" said John Spitzer, a board member of PLAN-Boulder County and treasurer of the Empower Boulder group. "It actually is a very big deal. It's at least two more elections and probably many more in the future. The more this goes on, the more it has the effect of just killing municipalization entirely."

Empower Boulder's letter outlines the benefits of municipalization, saying, according to a city analysis, that it would provide much cleaner energy at similar or lower rates than Xcel, and the charter amendment "puts these potential benefits at risk."

"It will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the city to finish the legal processes and gather the final pieces of information we need to make an informed decision as a community," the letter says.

Spitzer said the money for the mailing comes from "contributions from individuals and groups." He declined to name them Friday. He said the group would file its disclosures with the city as soon as city officials clarify the requirements for issue committees on measures that are not yet on the ballot.

Last week, city officials told attorneys for Xcel Energy that issue committees should register and file disclosure forms within three days of receiving of a contribution or making an expenditure.

However, the definition of an issue committee in the city code refers to "ballot measures," seeming to refer to measures that already had made it on the ballot, which the charter amendment has not.

Boulder officials have said they intend to clarify the definition when the City Council votes on changes to the financial disclosure rules June 4.

In the meantime, the City Attorney's Office is advising all issue committees --whether from Xcel Energy or Empower Boulder -- to file financial disclosures within three days of receiving contributions or spending money, city spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said.

Huntley said the city has received a notice of registration of an issue committee from Xcel Energy and from Voter Approval of Debt Limits but not from Empower Boulder. The charter amendment petition group has filed its first financial disclosure, but Xcel Energy continues to argue that it should not have to file one until the amendment has been certified for the ballot, Huntley said.

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